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Ukrainians Face First Nation-wide Electricity Outages After Russian Strikes

Published: October 20, 2022
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A photograph shows a view of Kyiv late on Oct. 11, 2022 during a rolling blackout of parts of districts of the Ukrainian capital following rocket attacks to critical infrastructures in the evening, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Image: EUGENE KOTENKO/AFP via Getty Images)

Ukrainians prepared for their first large-scale nation-wide disruption to electricity on Oct. 20 as officials sought to restrict supply to allow energy companies to repair power facilities that have been pounded by Russian air strikes.

The president’s office told Ukrainians late on Oct. 19 that they should minimise their use of electricity from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. and prepare for temporary blackouts and shortages in water supply.

There was no schedule announced for outages but major cities such as the capital Kyiv and Kharkiv in the northeast announced curbs on the use of electric-powered public transport such as trolleybuses and reduced the frequency of trains on the metro.

DTEK, a major electricity supplier in Kyiv, told consumers it would do its best to make sure outages did not last longer than four hours.

“We are ready for outages. We have candles, we have charged power banks. Ukraine is charged to win,” said Mykhailo Holovnenko, a project manager from Kyiv.

The whole northeast region of Sumy which borders Russia said it would go the entire day – from 0700 to 2300 local time – without water, electric transport or street lighting.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Russian air strikes have damaged 30 percent of Ukraine’s power stations in just over a week. He said late on Wednesday that three more energy facilities had been hit by attacks that day.

By Reuters (Production: Anna Dabrowska, Yuriy Kovalenko)